In Memoriam
Patrick P. Dunn
The Faculty of WPI notes with sorrow and a great sense of loss the death of our friend and colleague, Patrick P. Dunn. A historian trained in Russian history, Patrick Dunn was a passionate advocate of the Humanities at WPI who meticulously organized and executed his courses so that students had maximal access to his thinking; he always made his extensive notes immediately available to his students and was, in fact, one of WPI's earliest advocates of the Internet, posting all of his lectures on it, with links to the sources of his expertise and research. He pioneered the controversial use of psycho-history in his courses and research on the19th century Russian intellectuals Belinski and Bakunin. He was instrumental in the creation of WPI's global history offerings. A profound sense of social responsibility and commitment also led him to instigate and advise a series of model IQPs on the use of appropriate technology in developing countries. In 1988 he won The Trustees Award for Outstanding Teaching, which recognized the rigor and depth of his tireless, student-centered approach to instruction. Beyond the campus, he was proud to have helped to initiate and sustain the sister-city project twinning Worcester with Pushkin in the former Soviet Union.
In Department meetings Patrick Dunn was a humane, compassionate, unclouded voice that with startling quickness divined the full implications of a proposal and measured those against his unwavering advocacy of both the WPI Plan and humanistic inquiry at WPI. Vigorously argumentative he softened his positions with humor, natural grace, and an often outrageous delight in puns. The Department will miss the clarity, independence, and force of his perceptions. Hundreds of transfer students will miss the care and attentiveness and flexibility he brought to his role of assessing credits for their transfer work.
Patrick Dunn received his BA from Marquette, where he played varsity football and became an avid sports fan-one who had played on scrimmage teams within the NFL's Greenbay Packers. He received his MA and Ph.D. from Duke University in 1967 and 1969, and joined WPI's faculty in 1974. He taught for eight years in the Frontiers Program and served on dozens of departmental and faculty committees including the very first committee giving out the Award of 1879 for the best Sufficiencies. When, more recently, debilitating disease struck him, Patrick Dunn demonstrated the tenacity and sacredness with which he regarded teaching by continuing to instruct students to within three months of his death.
Therefore, let it be resolved that we, the members of the faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, express our sincere gratitude and admiration for his dedication and service to his profession, to our university, and its students, and that this resolution be inscribed on the records of the university as a memorial to this colleague, and that a copy of this resolution be delivered to his family.